Family Constellations Workshops Feb25 & March25 Cape Town

Family Constellation Workshops with The Inner Process

The Present Holds the Past : secrets and trauma across generations

“Ghosts, so claim the distinguished Hungarian psychoanalysts Nicolas Abraham and Mária Török, are psychological unfinished business. Whereas for Freud it is individual repressed traumas that return to haunt us, for [psychoanalysts] Abraham and Török, repressed traumas can be transmitted down the generations. And this repression often comes in the form of family secrets.

‘What haunts are not the dead, but the gaps left within us by the secrets of others,’ they wrote. Ghosts, like dreams, constitute a return of the repressed. They are traumas that have not received a proper burial. Too painful to mourn, they are avoided and passed down the family tree. And the point about ghosts is that they have a way of coming back to haunt you when you least expect them.”

You can get a sense from the family history recounted by Giles Fraser, of the layers of generational experience the wider family system lived through and that the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 “was probably the crucial move in 300 years of cultural assimilation” – and of displacement, exclusion and the layering of family secrets over the years.

The last wave

Now to come back to you in this present generation. A family constellation workshop can offer you a way of literally (with the help of others in the workshop) opening up a space-in-time where the unacknowledged past is uncovered and seen. In the present.

Where those past events that were too overwhelming for your ancestors to “see”, they may be seen by you, acknowledged and honoured. And in that remembering and honouring, will bring a sense of ease and peace to you and your family and your wider family system, in this present generation.

For those of you who have never experienced a constellation workshop I would like to let you know of the warm, intimate, safe and very holding quality that the constellation circle provides for each person who chooses to work.

And if you are not certain whether you want to, or are not yet ready to set up a constellation yourself, attend as an representative / observer in the holding circle. The experience of representing in someone else’s constellation is deeply moving.

An InvitationTo come and experience the profound depth that is reached with this way of working with the difficulties and the inexplicable emotional pain we so often experience in our lives.

FeesBooking to set-up a personal issue R950Booking to attend as a representative R300Booking to attend as a repeat representative R150

There are 4 places open for issue holders on the day, with a waiting list in the event of a cancellation. Those who have booked and paid the fee 3 weeks prior to workshop will have first preference for setting their own constellation on the day.

If you are new to the work attending as a representative is a good introduction to this way of working. It can also help clarify a possible issue for working on in a future workshop.

Attendance of at least 2 x 1 day workshops at least, is a requirement before joining future Study /Deep Learning Groups beginning mid-year.